Helsinki Park By Robert Wilson To Pay Tribute to Tapio Wirkkala
The planned park designed by Robert Wilson (courtesy The Art Newspaper)
The famed stage designer Robert Wilson is trying his hand at park design with a new commission in Helsinki dedicated to the memory of the designer Tapio Wirkkala, according to The Art Newspaper. The rectangular park–a garden, really–will be divided into nine rooms, each symbolizing different domestic spaces. One outdoor room, for example, will feature a small fireplace surrounded by stone seating. Read More
One Word: Plastics
Plastics was the key word at the recent Columbia conference “Permanent Change: Plastics in Architecture and Engineering,” which featured some of the best architects working with polymers today. On opening night, Greg Lynn did away with traditional tectonics in favor of total composite design from recycled toys to beautiful racing boats. Several pieces were on display in the lobby, including a beautiful backlit ribbed column cover designed by Columbia associate professor Yoshiko Sato (assisted by Shuning Zhao and John Hooper). Sato, who’s known for her NASA design research and space course at Columbia, also designed the two over-sized plastic inflatable flowers suspended from the lobby ceiling, as shown above. The composite designs will be up and on view at the Morningside Heights campus at least another week.
Plumen Light Bulb Wins Design of the Year
If one of the main complaints lodged against the compact fluorescent lightbulb is that it’s ugly, all that’s about to change with the Plumen 001. The energy efficient bulb has been hailed as one of the first major re-designs of the CFL, and today, it won Brit Insurance Product Design of the Year 2011.
Created by product designer Samuel Wilkinson and British electronics company Hulger, the Plumen is made out of two interwoven glass tubes. The curved design has a new silhouette from every angle. In addition to radiating warm white light, it uses 80% less energy and lasting eight times longer than incandescents. Read More
Snohetta Heads South of the Border
image courtesy of Snøhetta
The Oslo- and New York-based firm Snøhetta has been chosen to design the new Museum of Environmental Sciences at the University of Guadalajara. They were selected from a short list including Shigeru Ban, DS+R, Smiljan Radic, and Mauricio Rocha.
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Metrodome Roof Gets Remixed
We told you yesterday about the sad state of Minnesota’s snowy Metrodome. Today the deflated dome gets some funk, courtesy of University of Minnesota arch school grad Brice Aarrestad. (Insert your own ‘raise the roof’ joke here.)
Rose Window is Lower East Side’s Newest Star
It’s official. The multi-decade restoration of the historic Eldridge Street Synagogue is now truly complete with the recent installation of the new rose window that we told you about last February.
The Meier Menorah
From left to right, the candleholders represent the biblical expulsions from Egypt (the obelisk); Roman Palestine (Hadrian's victory column); France (1310); England (1290); the Spanish Inquisition (1492); the emancipation of Jews in Vienna (1890); pogroms in Russia (c. 1900); and the concentration camps in Germany during WWII.
Starchitect Richard Meier is now in the Judaica business, sort of. He recently designed a limited edition menorah and series of mezuzahs for The Jewish Museum in New York. The menorah is based on the Meier Lamp, a piece that was originally commissioned by the Israel Museum in 1985. And just in time for Hanukkah (which begins December 1st), this limited edition menorah can be purchased through The Jewish Museum Shop.
Irish Eyes Are Designing
Erosion Table by Joseph Walsh (photo: Andrew Bradley)
While it’s doubtful anyone would think of Ireland as a design powerhouse, a new show at the American Irish Historical Society on New York’s Upper East Side suggests the Emerald Isle deserves a second look. Curated by Brian Kennedy, the show includes furniture, ceramics, accessories, jewelery, a wall installation, as well as some models and sketches, and is an engaging crash course in Ireland’s emerging design scene. While there’s no one overriding style, an interest in organic shapes and natural materials is common in much of the work. Read More
Switzerland In Fall
USM's Haller system in brown.
In late September, the Swiss furniture company USM unveiled three fall colors for their iconic Haller shelving and storage system. First selected in the 1970s, the reissued orange, brown, and beige colors offer warmer options for the system, which is probably most often seen in black or white. A sunny yellow option was unveiled last year. An installation of the new colors on view at USM’s showroom at 28-30 Greene Street in New York. Read More
Venice 2010> Has the Biennale Outlived its Usefulness?
The Cherry Blossom Pavilion, in the Italian pavilion, one of the increasingly rare examples of architecture at the biennale. (Bill Menking)
The 2010 Venice architecture biennale closed on Saturday—at least for media representatives, as journalists were required for the first time to turn in their press passes and enter as public citizens (tickets, $25). I hated giving up that pass as it allowed me access to the exhibitions both at the Arsenale and in the giardini, home of the national pavilions. Though Venice is hardly a major military installation there are canals in the area that are off-limits to civilians; a water taxi driver informed my group that only a special permit would get us into the canal so I produced my press pass and he said “va bene” and he drove us up the canal. The power of the press! Read More
Dyson Awards Aim to Improve Society Through Design
The brief for the James Dyson Award design competition is deceptively simple: Design something that solves a problem. The winner and nine finalists representing the United States all responded with highly functional designs that could make a positive impact on the way we live, none more so than the U.S. winner, the Copenhagen Wheel, designed by Christine Outram and students in the SENSEable City Lab at MIT. The hybrid battery-powered disk turns any bike into an electric boosted bike, helping cyclists go longer distances and ride up hills. Read More
NeoCon Wrap-Up
NeoCon may not have the hipster cachet of ICFF or the design world glamour of Milan’s Salone, but every year I come away from Chicago’s Merchandise Mart having seen a lot of great products, and am reminded of the vast size, scope, and importance of the show. And as the way we work and the way we live become increasingly inseparable, design trends in the contract and residential markets are becoming similarly intertwined. Further, many Midcentury classics, now popular in the residential market, were first developed for the contract market. In addition to the great products we featured in our preview, here are a few more standouts from the show.
Antenna Workspaces, Knoll
The big news from Knoll was the Antenna Workspaces (above) collection by Antenna Design. The desk system is built around a table base with clean lines. A variety of box storage, drawer units, and panels can be attached to the center rail. The system looks particularly good when used with Knoll archival surfaces, such as the natural rattan and grass fabrics used in the NeoCon showroom. Read More
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